The horror of the faeces-smeared cells, the anguish of the families involved, faced with the prospect of the situation being worsened by a mass hunger strike, were bad enough. But there was also the tension of the ghetto areas. The fear of sectarian killings. Of a bomb, or gunfire, suddenly exploding. Of the wrecking midnight descent by troops. Of robbery, or rape perpetrated by some of the hordes of ‘hoods’ who flourished in the abnormality of the times. Of bereavement: one woman I interviewed, a widow, had one son ‘on the blanket’, and another had been shot dead by the IRA. Many of those I
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